John vs. Darkness

Listen to John Witzing talk about the Locked + Loaded, 24 Hours of Isolation challenge for mental health and what it was like to deal with the darkness.

On September 28, 2018 in Lake Tahoe, California the first ever 24-hour Sensory Deprivation Ultra Running Challenge took place.

Locked + Loaded, 24 Hours of Isolation (LL24H) was done as a physical and mental challenge in support of Mental Health benefiting Military members, Veterans, First Responders and their families.

Held in beautiful Lake Tahoe, CA at the 2018 Spartan World Championships the event was broadcasted live to social media and broadcasted to a global audience.

The challenge witnessed 4 endurance athletes enter their own shipping container, where they were deprived of light, sound, and biofeedback (such as time, distance, pace, and heart rate data). There, they each attempted to run for 24 hours on a TrueForm Runner (a non motorized treadmill) to see who could run the most miles.

Stepping up to the plate for the first ever challenge were;

3 x Ironman and Skydiver, John Witzing

Retired U.S. Marine and Adventure athlete, Brian "Tosh" Chontosh

Professional OCR athlete, Isaiah Vidal

Personal Trainer, Josh Chessman

Backed by an all volunteer team and production crew, the event quickly escalated into something that was conceived in a car driving to a Mountain Ultra during the spring of 2018. What was originally intended to be done in John Witzing's backyard, got catapulted to the world stage when Joe De Sena offered up the Spartan venue.

The story of how this all came together, the struggle and triumph, and the craziness of how it was conceived, made it an epic adventure and interesting experiment in human potential.